Reflection on Devising and New Devising Exercises
I really enjoyed the devising exercise that we did on Monday. Writing down basically anything associated with the Laramie Project and then writing a line or phrase on the opposite side of the card was a really creative way to attempt to build a scene. Originally, we picked a card that was on the ground with a word that was interesting to us, and created an individual moment based on that word. This progressed into us partnering up and choosing a different card that we thought was interesting. Maddie and I were both drawn to the words 'frustration' and 'disappointment'. Working together, we started brain storming a moment we could make through abstract movement that portrayed these words. After exploring different ideas, we decided to go with a story line of a mother who is never satisfied with anything her daughter does, and a daughter who is frustrated that her mom is never there for her. I played the daughter and Maddie played the mother. In the original scene, I went up to Maddie with something I was really excited to show her and she just turned me away with disappointment. This was the foundation of what was to come next.
The next layer we had to add was a clear beginning, middle, and end, and also incorporate one singular word or phrase which we chose from the other side of one of the notecards laying on the stage. To create a clear beginning, instead of just immediately running to Maddie with what I wanted to show her, I took a longer pause, implemented a deep breath, and then finally ran up to Maddie. The middle was when we incorporated a line. Once Maddie turned me away, I threw my arms in the air out of frustration, and as my hands hit my leg again, Maddie turned and yelled at me, "You know what, I don't care, do whatever you want as long as it doesn't affect me and my life." This moment was the middle of our moment. The final moment of our short scene was me banging on the ground out of pure frustration and even anger.
As a class, we had to devise together, and incorporate each small story that we all had been working on with our partners to make one scene. We actually made a circle in the center of the stage and brainstormed how we were going to do this as we all had pretty different moments. However, we realized that each piece had some sort of idea that there was a form of power over at least one of the characters. So, we decided it would be affective to show each moment individually, and then at the end of our scene, have everyone together and symbolize a strong source of power over them. Maddie and I opened the scene, followed by Bowen and Helena's moment, and then me, Helena, Pacifica, and Joyce all were being controlled by whoever had shown power over us in our individual scenes at the end. There was a tempo that me, Helena, Pacifica, and Joyce kept throughout the scene using our hands against the ground. This helped build tension and suspense. Maddie, Bowen, and Ruth controlled all of us by raising our bodies with their arms, and then forcefully pushing us down to the ground all at once to show their ultimate power. As this moment was about to happen, the tempo we had kept stopped, and there was silence for about 5 seconds, before we finally were pushed to the ground. I found this to be the most affective and tense moment of our scene.
This devising exercise came together really nicely, and it was an interesting way to create a performance and tell a story, even with little use of a script. We all were really into it and our ideas came together and blended very nicely. There were times, when we just were talking about what we would do, rather than actually experiment, but once we physically started trying out things, our scene came to life. This exercise taught me about collaboration, and to just be bold and try something and experiment rather than focusing on the actual concrete plan.
In our collaborative project groups, we had discussed some devising exercises that might be good for us and the scene we are trying to make. I'd like to do more devising exercises next week including the following:
The next layer we had to add was a clear beginning, middle, and end, and also incorporate one singular word or phrase which we chose from the other side of one of the notecards laying on the stage. To create a clear beginning, instead of just immediately running to Maddie with what I wanted to show her, I took a longer pause, implemented a deep breath, and then finally ran up to Maddie. The middle was when we incorporated a line. Once Maddie turned me away, I threw my arms in the air out of frustration, and as my hands hit my leg again, Maddie turned and yelled at me, "You know what, I don't care, do whatever you want as long as it doesn't affect me and my life." This moment was the middle of our moment. The final moment of our short scene was me banging on the ground out of pure frustration and even anger.
As a class, we had to devise together, and incorporate each small story that we all had been working on with our partners to make one scene. We actually made a circle in the center of the stage and brainstormed how we were going to do this as we all had pretty different moments. However, we realized that each piece had some sort of idea that there was a form of power over at least one of the characters. So, we decided it would be affective to show each moment individually, and then at the end of our scene, have everyone together and symbolize a strong source of power over them. Maddie and I opened the scene, followed by Bowen and Helena's moment, and then me, Helena, Pacifica, and Joyce all were being controlled by whoever had shown power over us in our individual scenes at the end. There was a tempo that me, Helena, Pacifica, and Joyce kept throughout the scene using our hands against the ground. This helped build tension and suspense. Maddie, Bowen, and Ruth controlled all of us by raising our bodies with their arms, and then forcefully pushing us down to the ground all at once to show their ultimate power. As this moment was about to happen, the tempo we had kept stopped, and there was silence for about 5 seconds, before we finally were pushed to the ground. I found this to be the most affective and tense moment of our scene.
This devising exercise came together really nicely, and it was an interesting way to create a performance and tell a story, even with little use of a script. We all were really into it and our ideas came together and blended very nicely. There were times, when we just were talking about what we would do, rather than actually experiment, but once we physically started trying out things, our scene came to life. This exercise taught me about collaboration, and to just be bold and try something and experiment rather than focusing on the actual concrete plan.
In our collaborative project groups, we had discussed some devising exercises that might be good for us and the scene we are trying to make. I'd like to do more devising exercises next week including the following:
- Light-experimenting with different types of lights and reacting to those lights; see how the lights give off tone, emotion, and how it affects the space
- Experimenting with a prop-how can we build a story out of this prop? React to the prop and use it to tell a story with minimal words
- I begin/I end with the entire group-pick an emotion relevant to our idea, and create moments/movements that relate, and then try to combine it all together.
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